OUR NUT TREES 



but it seems to have soon become lost and its value 

 unappreciated. I introduced it into the Arnold Arbor- 

 etum in 1907, but the plants were afterward destroyed 

 by a grass-fire caused by a careless visitor. This 

 Chestnut is abundant on the hills throughout the 

 Yangtsze Valley and there should be no difficulty 

 in securing seeds though they travel badly. It 

 forms a bush from 10 to 18 feet high and is sometimes 

 a small tree; the husk contains from three to six 

 small nuts which have a peculiarly sweet and pleas- 

 ant flavour. I never saw it attacked by the Chest- 

 nut blight. Summing up the question of the Chest- 

 nuts it would appear that in hybridizing the large- 

 fruited tree-forms with the three bush-forms there 

 is a field of much promise. 



The genus Corylus which yields the hazel-nuts is 

 spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Some 

 twelve species and several varieties are known, 

 three species in this country, four in eastern Asia, 

 two on the Himalayas, three in Europe and Asia 

 Minor. Three of them (C. colurna, C. Jacquemontii, 

 and C. chinensis) are large trees, the others are 

 best described as large busjies though occasionally 

 they form small trees. The Chinese C. chinensis 

 is a very large tree and I have a vivid recollection of 

 one giant, growing in central China, fully 120 feet 

 tall and 18 feet in girth of trunk with a broad oval 

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